The sun coming over one of the crumbling walls of the factory. I didn't realize until after the shot came out that the bars at the top looked like crosses.

I'm still getting used to peel apart - by the end of the day I think I had the timing of 690 down, but, uh, famous last words.

I also learned that when you're outside where it's dusty and dirty and you can't loiter around waiting for things to dry because you also have to walk through a field and crawl through barbed wire to get back to the car, it's very easy to screw up and scratch your polaroids and get lots of smudges. This one has plenty of both scratches and smudges, as do some of the others. Next time I go out, I'll have a better system in place, especially for peel apart. But hey, battle scars.

This is inside the factory - pylons galore. If you look straight ahead, through that arched doorway/window, you can see the two silos in the distance.

Yesterday I got to go on my first proper photo adventure, thanks to my new friend Jon. He knows what seems to be a million places all over the Bay Area and beyond, and he showed me two - an abandoned cement factory and a place called Mare Island. We left at about 7:30 (we would have left earlier, had I not had to re-make my coffee), in order to catch some morning light.

This was my first shot of the day, taken while standing on some train tracks, heading toward the cement factory. Those are the silos and the main building.

By the way, when he first said "cement factory," I thought he said "mint factory" and I got all excited that we were going to an abandoned candy factory. I'm awesome.

Where do I even begin?

There was a photo hunt and clues to a puzzle designed by Eli, and when I had retrieved seven out of ten photos, he suggested that I sit down and try to solve the puzzle. The answer would be two words: the name of where we were going to brunch, and the name of my birthday present. (I told you that birthdays go on forever in my family. Not that I'm complaining.) I figured out the system of how each letter corresponded to a number, and that each word had ten letters (and ten photos in a Polaroid pack - how convenient!). I wrote, hangman style:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I filled in the letters of the first word:

_ _ n r _ e t t a s

and knew that we were going to Henrietta's Table for brunch.

Then, I looked down, and saw in the puzzle the answer to the second set of blanks.

And then, I died. Died! I mean, WHAT?! Eli said that I had to write the letters in to make it official.

_ _ ss _ lblad.

_ _ SS _ LBLAD!!

I'd say it's the camera of my dreams, but I haven't even had dreams that take me that far. I tried to speak, but I couldn't. My heart burst clean out of my chest and I'm pretty sure that was my stomach flopping around on the floor beneath the table.

I won't go into details about Eli's sweet, sweet, teary reaction to seeing me beside myself with some combination of shock and joy. Suffice it to say that I wanted to marry him on the spot. Yes, again. And again, and again.

Then we finished up the photo hunt, and went to brunch, where Eli surprised me by inviting two of my bests to join us. At this point I was getting treacherously close to the upper limits of my happiness threshold. We had a loooong, leisurely brunch, during which I opened my insane gift, died again, but promptly came back to life in time for strawberries and cream.

To top it all off, there was a storm in the evening with plenty of thunder, a movie at home, a salad with just-picked greens and sweet peas, and a delicious camera manual of which I read every word. So much goodness in one day. I feel like I broke a law of some kind.

It's a whole lot of camera, especially for a beginner like me. I'll grow into it, I hope. In the meantime, I have a lot to learn. I can't wait.

www.flickr.com/photos/18656558@N06

What can I say except that ShannyBannany drives me bananis? Hahahaha!

The most wonderful, unique, fun, extravaganza for my poor old eyes! I couldn´t love it more, my dear!

I can´t stop thinking of all the different zillion ways I want to pain that skull (the first skull I´ve ever had!). I´m losing my mind!

THANK YOU, Shanon, my beloved friend, my personal Santa, for making me so happy! I don´t know how to express my eternal love! ❤

June 1, 2011

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By @royalelradin "#dérapé #dérapéproductions #teamthinkahead #teamnoncomplacency #revolutiontoinspire #motivation #motivationalquote #motivationalspeaker #quotesdaily #quoteoftheday #quotesaboutlife #wordoftheday #wordstoliveby #health #fitness #picoftheday #pictureoftheday #philosopher #inspiration #inspirationalquotes #successquotes #lifequotes #lifecoach" #ThereIsNoWay A #RelationshipCanProsper #IfTwoPeople #WhoAreSupposedToBe #Committed Aren't #OperatingAsOne - rellnash29_ty

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October 1, 2009